The colorful fall leaves have arrived in good numbers throughout northern Vermont. We have been sendng our guests to such towns as Peacham , Danville, Craftsbury, Island Pond, North Troy, etc. The leaves throughout northern VT are not quite at peak yet but they are close and the sight seeing is excellent.

Peacham is a classic Vermont village. It has been photographed by magazine, newspaper and book photographers thousands of times. It has been called the most photographed town in New England. Yankee Magazine said of it: "Of all the villages in New England, Peacham (population 665) is unsurpassed." (Sept 2005).

Peacham is an unusual name for a town and no record exists of how it came to be called that. However, there are a few theories and you can read some interesting stories about the name here.

Vermontís famous fall foliage season is underway. It seems to me that it is a bit early this year. Usually, a few of the poplars and birches will start turning yellow in August especially if they have been stressed with heat and lack of rain. This year, we had a very cool August and few leaves started changing until September. But the poplars and birchesquickly caught up and individual maple trees here and there are turning orange/red ahead of normal years. Weíre still a week or so away from having large patches of color on the hillsides but itís definitely on the way.

The last few days of September and the first two weeks of October are the best foliage periods in this area of north central Vermont. Southern Vermont and the Lake Champlain valley are about a week behind us. The leaves start changing at the upper elevations and in the northern part of the state and then work their way down the mountainsides and into the southern part of the state over a one month period. The Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing web site has an excellent animated foliage map which demonstrates this. Note the Pause and Play buttons which allow you study the mapís progress in detail. Also, you can click on the calendar dates alongside the map to make the foliage progress easier to understand.

Something new this year is the Lodging Forecaster . You can see where lodging will be easy or difficult to find according to date.

If you decide to come here without a reservation, keep in mind that the best rooms get taken first so you may not only have a challenge finding a place but also you wonít get the best rooms. Each year, we have people drop in who have no reservations. Usually (but not always) you can find a last minute room on week nights but the weekends are another matter. As a result, these people without reservations spend a lot of stressful time trying to find a room. If you come here without a reservation, I suggest you start looking for a place in early afternoon rather than waiting until evening. However, if you want to have an enjoyable and relaxing time here during fall foliage, make room reservations before your trip.

This is a great time of year for fishing in Vermont. The weather is mostly cool and, instead of mosquitos, the bugs are mostly mayflies and other types that trout love to eat.

I managed to carve out some time the other day to go fishing with a guide I know. It was just my second time out this year. So, other than a very rusty casting technique, and slow reaction time to strikes, I had a great time fishing for rainbow trout in the riffles of the Winooski river just a few minutes from the inn.

I have been fly fishing for about 15 years but never got out enough to become good at it. However, it's still a source of great enjoyment. I once read a line that went something like "I fish for trout because they live in such beautiful places." That's how I feel so, even though I'm missing more fish than I catch, it's a great experience just to be on the stream.

Of course, you can be on the stream without a fishing pole if you just want to enjoy the beautiful scenery. But if you're standing in a stream without a fishing pole, you're gonna look pretty foolish. As the comedian Steven Wright points out, there's a thin line between fishing and standing in the water looking like an idiot.

Here is some advice I wish someone had given me years ago. The biggest mistake I made in fly fishing was becoming a gear collector. I should have spent more of that money on casting lessons and fishing guides. I would be a far better fisherman today.

Guides look expensive but they will save you years of trial and error type learning that is really more expensive. And you will learn the right stuff instead of just spending a ton of time teaching yourself how to do things incorrectly. And fishing with a good guide is fun too. A good quality rod is important (my personal favorite is a Sage rod) but beyond that, my advice is to scrimp on everything else and spend most of your money on instructors. Most people do it the opposite way which I know from personal experience is the wrong approach.

There are a number of guides and fly fishing shops in Vemont. The most famous shop is Orvis which is headquartered in Manchester VT, in the southwestern part of the state, close to the borders with NY and MA.

A favorite local fly shop is Green Mountain Troufitters. And for a guide, I recommend Lawton Weber. He is extremely knowledgable about habitat, trout, many rivers and streams in Vermont, casting, insect hatches, etc. He is the editor of the latest edition of Northern Cartographic's Vermont fishing book. His web site has excellent and honest stream reports. He likes Scott flyfishing rods and supplies them to his clients when guiding.

I ran across a New England Blog recently that is a wide ranging collection of articles about travelling throughout the northeast. The blog is part of New England Vacations Guide website which I found interesting and helpful. It's geared toward people planning a vacation but it makes great leisure reading too.

Also, there are some general articles useful for travlers such as what to expect at a bed and breakfast, and what the difference is between an inn and B&B.

This is a large website but it is well worth the time to go through and I'm sure you will find much to enjoy. In fact, this is one of the best web sites I've found about New England travel so I have added a link to it in the left column of this blog in case you want to come back here sometime to easily re-find the site.

The latest issue of Vermont Life is out and it's another home run. This quarterly magazine consistently has excellent quality writing and photography, as well as extensive and reliable information such as events calendar and major news.

Vermont Life, which also has a website, is published by the State of Vermont. I think the annual subscription is around $15 per year for four issues.

If you canít travel to Vermont regularly, this is a great way to see the state and its inhabitants. The photographs alone will give you an instant urge to come for a Vermont vacation, and the articles will give you many ideas for all the wonderful places to visit.